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I am restoring a 1946 Packard Deluxe Clipper Model 2112

I am looking for fabric/carpet to match the interior as close to original as possible.

I have original samples of everything except the seat cushions which came in a checkered or houndstooth broadcloth. Here is some information I found on the web.
There appears to have been two combinations available in the deluxe--code 56 broadcloth part # 386000 and 57 # 386004. I also found part #'s in an original Clipper Parts manual
part # 31.418 back carpet & 31.4175 front carpet.

The carpet is brown very course like horsehair and the front matt is ribbed rubber up under the pedals. Re-production carpet that would match that would be awesome or at least the brown carpet which I think was called moss ?

Headliner is tan
Door Cloth is broadcloth, one color darker than headliner more grey
Kick Panels are simulated leather in sort of an olive green.

Exterior Paint
Vermont Green
Vanderbuilt Grey

Any help is appreciated on where the best place to look would be.

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G'day Tom,
to PackardInfo. Nice looking '46 Deluxe Clipper which I invite you to include in the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo.

You might try SMSsmsautofabrics.com/ or possibly Lebaron Bonney for the fabric. SMS may have some old stock fabric or may even custom weave it if the incentive ($$) is there.

Mosstread carpet was used on the Custom models for sure. It's a very plush carpet but not sure how far down the model range it extended. It might have been reserved for seniors and not used on yours. At any rate, believe it is extinct and a Wilton type carpet is about as close as you will find to it now. Do a search for mosstread on site. Several threads over the last year or so. Mohair comes to mind as a possibility that might have been on your model.

Ahoy, '46 DeLuxe. You've a wonderful car, and nice colors.
Immediately phone Armand Annereau at Armand's Auto Upholstery, 1 (925) 934-4373 and tell him a certain black '47 Super Clipper in Walnut Creek referred you. (He also did my '40 120 years ago.) My Super Clipper came with the identical fabrics as your DeLuxe.
The coarse rear carpet you describe below is actually hogshair. I upgraded my car front and rear to a gray shortpile carpet used in recent Mercedes simply as i like gray. I was heartened to see a fellow who brought his '41 180 LeBaron Sport Brougham to Armand selected the same from the hundreds of possibilities.
But that's not why you called. Armand's is the third-generation owner of a family carriage and automobile upholstery shop in business since 1897. Armand has the big upholstery sample books Packard issued only to their larger, urban dealers. If a fabric is still available from any mill on this mortal coil, Armand either has it or can source it.

For decades, Armand's been the last word when Packards are judged at respected Bay Area/NorCal shows, for those who still like that sort of thing. He's also done much work for the world renowned area Behring Museum and Blackhawk Collection. And he's owned and owns 1938, '40, '48 and '50s Packards, is himself a hobbyist and his prices in line with lesser shops.

BTW, get a hold of Tom McCahill's Mechanix Illustrated road test of your car. He loved it.
The junior 8 Clippers like yours are every bit as good as the seniors, just smaller. The equal or better than a R-R Silver Dawn or Bentley R-Type on the same 120-inch wb in my book.
The English cars are arguably finer furniture than our cars, if, and only if, wood veneer and leather are important to you. Wood can splinter in an accident and gore you, and i'm a pescetarian, a vegetarian who eats fish, so i can do without the slaughtered animal skin.

But our cars are finer automobiles.

I think you are talking about a fine 3 tone houndstooth as used on the 22nd series Eight (not the Eight DeLuxe). I'm not aware of a good repro. LeBaron Bonney has a houndstooth which is larger check - it might be an acceptable choice for you.

You guys are really helpful. I appreciate the help.

I put my car in the registry.

Hogs Hair seems to describe the carpet exactly. It appears very difficult to find and the best wilton that matches appears to be the following.

Cinnamon 204 Picture attached.

I will check into the three tone houndstooth from Lebaron

I have lots of other questions.

The hogshair should be available from Bill Hirsch

Hirsch Automotive

Quote:Tom,
for including your '46 Deluxe Clipper Eight Touring Sedan.

'umbly, perhaps there be times when we might diverge, upgrade from what Packard did, especially when it doesn't alter the car in any way that a future owner can't easily reverse, should he or she be dying to carpet their car in,
for example, hogs hair...

1946-47 Deluxe 8s and Supers not only used coarse hogs hair, but in the front compartment, a bonded rubber matting.
The stuff held up in cars used as routine transportation, with driver and passengers tracking in mud, snow, not an issue today. Such trim was a trade off between practicality while not looking too cheap.

Always thought it hilarious how many Packardites fawn over Darrins, which were, especially the 1938-40 models, strictly slam, bam, get 'em out the door no two of 'em alike; what would later be known as "radical California customs." Dutch used door handles off junked Hudson Terraplanes; when the convertible tops wouldn't go down deep enough his shop simply smashed down the inner rear fender well. Everything for show. Brunn built a lone '40 160 victoria in the style of a Darrin, but with their typically top drawer workmanship. What a difference. Certainly this is what Darrin victorias would've been like had they been built at East Grand Avenue.

But God/Gaia/Great Spirit/Zeus/Minerva/Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea forbid we should tastefully upgrade an already better quality Detroit factory production Packard.

Have never fathomed the Ford Model A Henry way or the highway mentality visited on upper echelon automobiles like Packards. Especially when so many Packard owners are already slapping on whitewalls that were originally on perhaps one car in 40 in the day, fog or driving lights you never saw. Bob Mehl wrote about his Pittsburgh, PA 1940s car-crazed boyhood, recounting how he never saw fog/driving lights back then. Deluxe hood ornaments. All this stuff you rarely saw then.

And these same folks think nothing of painting their engine accessories a shrill gloss black, when Packard painted them matte or semi-gloss. Somehow, that sort of nonsense is "okay."

But tastefully upgrade your carpet the way i and the fellow with the '41 180 LeBaron Sport Brougham did -- why, perish the thought! Armand could've done what the factory did for either of us, but we both, coincidentally, chose something else tho' in the spirit, understated.

I'm a big believer in sticking with authentic for the year Packard paint colors. But hogs hair? Really?

Saw a beautiful '36 Lincoln K Willoughby Sport Sedan once.
The door panels, headliner all done in a heavy, sumptious English broadcloth twice the thickness of the original mouse fur in so many Detroit cars, Packards included, regardless of make, cost.
So i did the same in the '40 120 i had then, tho' with the original stitching, etc. Looked stunning.

There's a vast difference 'twixt such tasteful upgrading and a Packard street rod, butchering a fine automobile; the yahoos who two-tone 1935-40 Packards.

Funny. Had a rare '39 Packard accessory tachometer in that car. Packard likely offered it that year to dramatically promote the overdrive they finally got around to offering, five years after Chrysler.
I was young and dumb, so felt compelled to enter a show now and then. Recall the clipboard-wielding martinets docking me a point or two because it wasn't a "1940 option," even tho' the dashes were the same, it replacing the clock.

When the judging was over and the awards decided, they skulked back to study it and ask where they could get one.

Don't let such low horizon sorts torpedo your lovely car.
You're not "supposedta" have whitewalls. You don't "hafta"
order an off the rack upholstery kit from LeBaron Bonney or anyone else. Leave that to the Model A Ford and '38 Buick Model 40 crowd.

Remember, Packards were still production automobiles, built to a price. We're allowed to use better lubricants, tires, batteries than existed in the day.

Just some thoughts. However, should you decide to stick with hogs hair and a faithful recreation of the front compartment rubber floor matting, Armand has done many, many such Packards over the decades, as has his father, and his father before him.

I sent a friend with a '36 Cord Westchester to Armand, who faithfully recreated the entire interior, but my friend mentioned Armand's seams were straighter than the work done at the Connersville, Indiana factory, and those "Duesenberg One Twenties" cost twice as much new as a '36 Cadillac Model 60.

As mentioned, your '46 Deluxe 8 is a better automobile than a concurrent postwar Silver Dawn or Bentley R-Type on the same 120-inch wheelbase, other than interior trim. And you can easily, subtly, tastefully remedy that.

'Course, i never had the least interest in Model A Fords and the like, no offense to any who dally downstream.

I appreciate your perspective su8overdrive. I always thought the rubber matting and hogs hair seemed a bit lower class than the rest of the interior of the car.

Maybe I will consider an upgrade to a Wilton wall to wall carpet that matches the seat cushion and door panel broadcloth, that would definitly look nicer.

I'm taking my time figuring this out. Why hurry.